Sociopsychopathicosis

John Seabrook, in the 10 November New Yorker, writes about a Dr. Kent Kiehl using MRIs to study psychopaths' brains in prisons, in "Suffering Souls." Some of the more interesting bits of information, from a perspective outside the realm of psychology, comes in the history sections of the articles. For instance, in the 1920s and 30s, psychopathic beahavior was thought to occur more due to external rather than internal forces, and

“sociopath,” coined in 1930 by the psychologist G. E. Partridge, became the preferred term. In 1958, the American Psychiatric Association used the term “sociopathic personality” to describe the disorder in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In the 1968 edition, the condition was renamed “general antisocial personality disorder.

Psychopath means "suffering soul", and altho sociopath refers to the same thing, it would appear to not have so much a real etymology so much as a fabricated history. That is, "sociopath" would have no sensible meaning looking at its Greek origins.

Post-Election Pre-Election Stories

The 17 November issue of Newsweek contains a seven part series about the Obama and McCain campaigns leading up to the election. It was written by a team of reporters who were able to follow from within the campaigns from the beginning, "on the condition that none of their findings appear until after Election Day." Currently five of the chapters are available for reading online.

Some excerpts from part one, "How He Did It," covering the beginning of Obama's run and his early challenges with the Clinton campaign:

At Coretta Scott King's funeral in early 2006, Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert Kennedy, leaned over to him and whispered, "The torch is being passed to you." "A chill went up my spine," Obama told an aide. The funeral, he said, was "pretty intimidating."

A taped recording, of Obama discussing with strategists the stupidity of debate questions: "Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I [fucking] changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective." This certainly calls to mind John Kerry's use of the word in his Rolling Stone interview, four years ago, tho without the same calculating slant. Kerry knew it would be published immediately, Obama did not know when after the election, if at all, it would come to light.

And what political report would not be complete without President Bill Clinton doing something utterly ridiculous and hilarious:

An aide approached McAuliffe and said the president wanted to see him. McAuliffe was escorted to the Clintons' suite by a Secret Service agent. He found Bill Clinton watching a bowl game on TV. The ex-president seemed perfectly relaxed and jovial. "Sir," said McAuliffe, "have you heard the news?" "What news?" Clinton asked. "We're going to get killed," said McAuliffe.

"What!" exclaimed Clinton, who then called out in a loud voice, "Hillary!"

Newsweek chooses to end the fifth page of the article here, to comedic effect. As a commercial break, it works perfectly, altho the story continues on the next page. One would assume that this applies to the online edition more so than the print, but it is funny nonetheless.